Community platforms are a great invention. Think of them as mini social networks where people can share information, comment on posts and connect to each other. Of course, we’ve already got sites such as Facebook and MySpace which will already do that for you but say you want a private area (for example within a company) then websites such as these can be a little open.

Unfortunately, if you’re not an absolute wiz-kid at web design, then creating a community platform from scratch can be a painstakingly long task. This is where Hoop.la comes in. It helps you design a community platform from scratch without any prior web design knowledge and makes creating and maintaining platforms a piece of cake.

This can be a real bonus for anyone, whether you are a small business holder or a club member and you’re wanting to create a platform for your other members. Hoop.la has plenty of in-built features so let’s dive straight in and take a look at them.

Today, it’s easy to create a new blog in seconds with WordPress.com, Tumblr, or Posterous. You can start publishing and get your content online quickly, and many software firms today consist of little more than a website and apps in an App Store. But what if you want an easy way to discuss what you’re creating? Group chat can be very difficult to setup, and forums are even more frustrating. Should you just resort to @replies on Twitter for communicating with your customers?

We were excited to recently discover Convore, which is a new webapp that’s designed to take away the the friction with creating a private forum. In seconds, you can start a new realtime discussion page for your group. Private or Public discussions, PC or mobile, Convore works the way you want. Let’s take a deeper look so you’ll see exactly how to create a new Convore discussion.

When your visitors or customers have questions, they typically contact you directly or ask their question(s) in your site forum—assuming you have one. In most situations, a forum isn’t available either.

Qhub provides a fast way to setup a customizable Q&A website in a matter of minutes. With Qhub you can eliminate repetitive questions, save your inbox and make it easier for your visitors or customers to get the answers they’re looking for. Here’s a quick how-to covering this already popular web app.